Wednesday, July 4, 2012

It's a whole new world for Upper Deck. Just a few short years ago collectors would be getting jazzed up for SPx, Sp Authentic, Exquisite and other sets with players featured in NFL uniforms. But things have gown south for the California based card company in recent years. Hit hard by the economic downturn in 2006-2010, UD was forced to downsize staff and battle many lawsuits that ultimately led to them losing out on licenses for the NBA, MLB and NFL. Upper Deck still releases some quality content though. In the sports segment, the NHL cards tend to have a high quality feel and a license with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) allows them to feature many NCAA teams in college themed sets.

In late 2011 UD released sets for the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma. Clearly these are niche sets, but from what I've found they are well received by fans of those particular college teams. In 2012, look for a couple more niche football sets - with the first one being for the University of Alabama. They've had a lot of great coaches and players come though that storied program over the years and Upper Deck was able to get a good many players - 84 with autographs - into the set. Some of the big name autographs in the set include: Bart Starr, Ken Stabler, Ozzie Newsome, Trent Richardson, Mark Ingram, Joe Namath and many more.